1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mass storage devices, to mass storage controllers and related methods for storing data.
2. Description of Related Art
Most electronic devices include some form of mass storage device for storing data such as program code and control information, data files such as may be text files, presentation files, user profile information for access to varies computer services (e.g., Internet access, email, etc.), digital audio files (e.g., MP3 files, WMA—Windows Media Architecture—, mp3 PRO, Ogg Vorbis, AAC—Advanced Audio Coding), digital video files [e.g., still images or motion video such as MPEG (motion picture expert group) files, JPEG (joint photographic expert group) files, etc.], address book information, and/or any other type of information that may be stored in a digital format. Mass storage devices include components such as flash drives, also known as thumb drives and pen drives, as well as hard disks, floppy disks, compact disk read only memories (CD-ROMs) digital video disk read only memories, and other memories that store information on a storage medium such as an optic or magnetic storage medium or in an integrated circuit memory such as a random access memory (RAM) or a read only memory (ROM).
These mass storage devices typically store data in a file format that utilize a File Allocation Table (FAT) that is used to share data between a device such as a host device having an operating system, and the mass storage device. Examples of such file formats include FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, Virtual FAT (VFAT), FASTFAT, as well as high performance file system (HPFS) and NT file system (NTFS). As data is written to and read from the mass storage device, the file allocation table is continually updated to keep track of the files that are stored. The time taken to update the file allocation table is included in time required to access the stored data. Longer access time can slow the operation of the host device in applications that are data intensive.
Therefore, a need exists for mass storage devices with reduced access time.